Big Boy

Posted by Mandy on April 14th, 2008 filed in Uncategorized

No, I’m not talking about the guy in the checkered pants holding aloft his victory burger with the weird eyes (how can he see with a wedge-shaped chunk out of them?), although he does share some similarities with ten-month old Jack.  They both have rather round bellies.  And like ground beef.

I have always had a problem managing my weight, from the time I was on Nutri-system as a sophomore in highschool, to the Atkins diet (it worked!), to now (the “all organic eat whatever” diet, which isn’t so much a diet as it is a food choice).  I remember being told as a freshmen in college by a junior “you would be so hot if you just lost 20 punds.”  Gee, thanks.  Needless to say, weight is kind of a flash point for me.

At Jack’s 9 month appointment, he was in the 75th percentile for height and 90th for weight.  As near as I can tell, this is the same a month later (although I haven’t checked his height recently).  Our doc said to limit his formula intake to 16-20 ozs a day*, and as near as I can tell, that about 4-12 ozs a day less than any other guidelines I can find, and while she didn’t explicitly say it was for his weight, after we left I wondered.  I don’t want my kid on a diet when he’s less than a year old, but I also don’t want him to grow up to be overweight.  He eats a fair bit in addition to his bottles, but all the things I have read say that kids at this age eat because they’re hungry, not because of any other motivation.

I don’t want to get in the way of his being able to figure out the signals he gets when he’s still hungry or if he’s full.  Child of Mine has been a great read for all of these issues (how to feed your baby), but I guess I still worry about it.  It’s hard not to, when people comment on it all the time:

He doesn’t miss many meals, does he?
What a big boy he is!
You’re a chunky one, aren’t you? [except, he isn't.]

it makes me feel defensive, for both of us.  And I don’t want him to have the same feelings I had (and have) about weight and body image.  I want him to have a healthy relationship with food.  And exercise.  I want him to feel at ease in his skin, and I am not sure how to supprt him in that, since I don’t have it myself.